The Mummy
by Phoenix-Fire Power
Summary: De-anon from kink meme. A crossover of The Mummy with Alfred as Connell. Arthur as Evie. And Francis as Jonathon. USUK
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: hey people!**

**This is a request from the kink meme that I hold to do. I love the movie 'The Mummy'.**

**Please enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

Ancient Egypt. The city of beauty and power. A rich history of pharaohs and the pyramids.

It is city of Thebes. The year is 2,134 B.C.

"Thebes. City of the living. Crown jewel of Pharaoh Amun-ir-ta-f the First." a man said his voice thick with an Egyptian accent.

An Arabian horse drawn chariot comes barreling through the grounds driven by Pharaoh Amun-ir-ta-f, an aristocratic, virile old man.

A man stands on a balcony gazing over the lands as the moon settles in the sky.

"Home of Kames, High Priest of Osiris, Keeper of the Dead."

A gorgeous olive skinned woman entered the outer foyer. The makeup drawn into her skin making it seem as if she was wearing a dress.

"Birthplace of Re-nefer-u. Pharaoh's mistress. No other man was allowed to touch her."

Re-nefer-u made her way through the ornate statuary. As she walked through the hallway the eyes of a man completely painted in gold follows her, the priests of Kames. Behind the curtain Re-nefer-u embraces Kames before they kiss passionately. Kames's hands roam over her body smearing the paint slightly.

"But for their love, they were willing to risk life itself."

On the other side of the curtains the priests rush to close the doors. However as they go the doors suddenly burst open. The Pharaoh angrily strides in and looked at the priests suspiciously.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

The priests back away bowing lowly, his arrival unexpected. The Pharaoh eyed the curtains and crosses the room and opens the curtains. Re-nefer-u stands there alone with her hand on the statue. She gazed up at him under her eyelashes and smiles at him. Pharaoh's eyes narrowed when he sees the smeared body paint.

"Who has touched you?" he snarled pointing at her.

From behind him his sword is ripped out of its scabbard startling him. The Pharaoh spins around and his eyes widened in shock. Kames stood there with his the sword in hand.

"Kames." Amun-ir-ta-f whispered. "My priest."

Behind him Re-nefer-u lifts a dagger and plunges it into his back. Amun-ir-ta-f screamed in pain as Kames raises Roerich's sword. The priests slam the doors and bolt them tight as through the curtains they watch the shadows of Kames and Re-nefer-u stab at the Pharaoh.

Suddenly the doors are rammed from the other side. Kames and Re-nefer-u turn and look towards the doors before they give one another desperate looks. Kames's priest run up and grabbed Kames and tried to pull him towards the balcony.

"Pharaohs body guards." one of the priests whispers to Kames.

Kames tries to break free but Re-nefer-u rips Pharaohs sword out of his hand and pushes him towards the balcony.

"You must go. Save yourself." she commanded. "Only you can resurrect me."

Kames's face fills with despair. The doors explode open and men with blue tinted skin and strange puzzle tattoos that cover their bodies stride in with weapons in their hands and sides, the Medjai. The priests pull Kames out onto the dark balcony just as the Medjai rip through the curtains.

Re-nefer-u turns to face them and points to the Pharaohs body, which the men gasp in horror at.

"My body is no longer his temple." she hisses as she plunges the sword into her own heart. Out on the balcony mouth open in a silent scream as Kames watched her shadows.

"For murdering the Pharaoh Re-nefer-u's body was to be cursed. And it was the High Priests who duty was to curse it."

Kames led a torch lit procession across the dunes. Re-nefer-u's mummy is carried by Nubian slaves. They pet her down in the sand along with five jewel encrusted jars.

"Her body was mummified, her vital organs removed and placed in sacred canopic jars."

Kames, filled with dread, reads from a book made out of pure gold. The book of the living.

"The book of the living contained sacred incantations that would send the evil dead on a journey into the dark underworld."

Strange light sudden flashes across Re-nefer-u's body and across the faces of the slaves and Egyptian soldiers. Suddenly everyone's fear filled eyes all rise as if watching Re-nefer-u's boy rising. Then one last huge flash accompanied by a blast of wind and Re-nefer-u's body now laid twisted on the ground.

Kames's priests place the body into a stone sarcophagus. The Nubian slaves lower it into a hole and bury it with sand. Then Kames signals to the soldiers who throw their spears at the Nubians slaves killing them.

"The slaves were killed."

Kames's knife wielding priests attack the now unarmed soldiers, hacking at them in the flickering darkness as Kames and the Medjai solemnly watch.

"And the soldiers who killed them were also slain, so that no unholy person should ever know the exact location of the burial site."

The Medjai walk off across the sand and then one by one the priests stop their frenzied stabbing and stare off at the vanishing Medjais. As the last Medjai disappears over a distant dune Kames nods and the priests lead into Re-nefer-u's grave and begin digging it back up with their hands.

Chariots race out into the moonlit desert as Kames leads the way. A hearse carries Re-nefer-u's mummy.

"But there was another book, the book of the dead, which was never to be opened. Never to be read, for it contained the incantations that could bring a dead body back to life. A most unholy thing."

The chariots arrived at a city where they race up the stone ramp and in through the city gates.

"It was hidden at Hamunaptra, the city of the dead. Inside the statue of Anubis, so that no such sacrilege might ever disgrace Egypt."

Kames pulled an ornate chest out of a secret compartment inside the giant state of Anubis. He opens the chest and lifts out the book of the dead, made of black stone.

"But for his love of Re-nefer-u he was willing to defy the gods."

Big hairy rats scurry through the mausoleums and over the headstones of the underground cemetery. A detritus moat surrounds the cemetery, muck made out of filthy water and human remains. Skulls bob in the waters. The priests have gathered in a circle, their hooded, lifeless eyes seem dead to this world. Their bald heads rock back and forth as they chant a quiet eerie hum.

In the middle of the circle is a strange and twisted altar. Kames has unwrapped Re-nefer-u's lifeless body and placed her five sacred canopic jars around her.

"Re-nefer-u's vita organs were still fresh so a human sacrifice would not need to be made."

As Kames began to read from the book of the dead a large swirling hole opens in the detritus bog. Several priests look over at it frightened and then quickly look back down and resume chanting. A strange mist wafts up out of the swirling hole and over to the jars. It passes through them and into Re-nefer-u's body. One of the jars shudders, the one containing the heart, and it begins to beat. The chanting priests, the swirling hole, the wafting mist, the beating heart, and Kames's readings are reaching a crescendo. Re-nefer-u's eyes suddenly fly open.

"Re-nefer-u's soul had come back from the dead. Now all that was needed was to return her organs to their right place within her body."

Kames lifts a sacrificial knife above Re-nefer-u's breast about to plunge it down. Suddenly the Madjai burst in and storm through the startled priests. The head Medjai smashes the jar with the beating heart. The mist instantly sucks back out of Re-nefer-u's body and implodes back into the swirling hole. Re-nefer-u's eyes close, dying once again. Kames screams in rage as the Medjai grabbed him and his priests.

"The priests were condemned to be mummified alive."

Inside a torch lit chamber Kames held by Anubis headed embalmers. He cringed at the flickering and impressionistic glimpses of his priests being embalmed and mummified alive. The horrid looking embalmers using knife, needles, and thread calmly perform their ghastly surgery on the screaming priests who are going insane from the procedure.

A red hot poker is pulled out of a pit of burning coals. A priests head is wedged between two strong boards. His eyes widen in terror as an embalmer moves to insert the red hot poker up his nose. Kames's face is horrified as the priest screams in pain.

All twenty one of Kames's priests squirm inside their wrappings. Kames is forced to his knees as his arms are held back and his mouth it pried open.

"As for Kames, he was condemned to endure the Hom-Dai. The worst of all ancient curses, one so horrible it had never before been bestowed."

Using a pair of tongs an embalmer slowly pulls Kames's tongue out of his mouth and then places a very sharp knife on top of it. Kames's eyes close as his tongue is cut off. The embalmer flings the tongue onto the floor where the Medjais dogs attack and quickly eat it.

Kames is wrapped and only his mouth, nostrils, and fear filled eyes are left free of the slimy bandages. The embalmers scoop out the detritus muck boils inside a black cauldron and apply it to Kames's wrappings as he squirms. He is then laid in a wooden coffin inside a stone sarcophagus. An embalmer with a bucket empties the bucket over Kames's chest. Dozens of scarabs scurry across Kames's screaming face. Some vanish into his tongue less mouth and up his nostrils.

"By eating the sacred scarabs he would be cursed to stay alive forever. And my eating him they were cursed just the same."

The lid to the coffin is slammed shut and then using a strange four sided key the head Medjai locks the coffin lid tight. The heavy sarcophagus lid is shoved into place and seals itself airtight. Once again the Head Medjai uses the strange key locking the sarcophagus lid tight.

"He was to remain sealed inside his sarcophagus, the undead for all of eternity."

The blue skinned strangely tattooed man carefully collapses the sides of the key and turning it into a little puzzle box.

"They would never allow him to be released. For he would arise a walking disease, a plague upon mankind, an unholy flesh eater, with the strength of ages, power over the sands, and the glory of invincibility."

Kames's sarcophagus is dropped into a detritus pit. The disgusting much splashes up, drools down its sides, and then is mysteriously sucked into. It seams and vanishes.

"And if he could raise his beloved Re-nefer-u from her place in hell, together they would be an unstoppable infection upon this world. The apocalypse. The end."

Kames's horrifying tongue less screams can be heard coming from inside his sarcophagus as grave diggers shovel dirt onto it.

The heavily armed Medjai stand guard around Kames's grace. Looking down on the burial site is the huge statue of Anubis, the jackal headed god of death.

**Alright, just for clarification. Ludwig is Kames. FemItaly is Re-nefer-u. And Roderich is Amun-ir-ta-f the First. I picked those names for a reason in the beginning but I no longer remember why.**

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.**

**Questions? Comments? Leave them in a review.**

**Until next time.**

**This is Phoenix-Fire Power over and out.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: ****hey people!**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: ****I own nothing.**

In the scorching desert a man was sitting up on a high wall his kepi sat at a jaunty angle. This man sat in the now Hamanaptra ruins and the year is 1925 and his name is Alfred F. Jones. He is armed to the teeth and looked out to the massive screaming horde galloping towards him.

"I knew this was gonna be a lousy day." he sighed.

A doughy little Latvian man joined Alfred as he maed his way across the top of the wall.

"Personally, I would like to surrender." Raivis said. "Why can we not just surrender?"

"Shut up and give me your bandolier." Alfred said.

Raivis pulled off his cartridge belt and handed it to Alfred.

"Then let's run away." Raivis suggested. "Right now. While we can still make it."

Alfred ignored Raivis and threw it on making it crisscross with his own bandolier.

"Now give me your revolver." Alfred said. "You'll never use it anyway."

Raivis pulled out his pistol and chucked it to Alfred.

"Then let's play dead, huh?" Raivis persisted. "Nobody ever does that anymore."

Alfred slid it into his belt right next to his own revolver.

"Now go find me a big stick." Alfred commanded.

"In the desert?" Raivis said. "What for?"

Alfred turns to Raivis and stepped forward until they are nose-to-nose.

"So I can tie it to your back." Alfred said. "You appear to be without a spine."

The horde of warriors thundered forward now a half mile away. Together Raivis and Alfred ran through the ruins.

"How did a guy like you end up on the legion anyways?" Alfred asked as they ran.

"I got caught robbing a synagogue." Raivis said. "Lots of good stuff in them holy places. Churches, temples, mosques. And who's guarding them?"

"Altar boys?" Alfred said almost sarcastingly.

"Exactly!" Raivis exclaimed. "I speak seven languages, including Hebrew, so my specialty was synagogues. How about you? Kill somebody?"

Raivis tripped suddenly and accidently tackled Alfred to the ground. Getting up Alfred gave Raivis a nasty look.

"No, but I'm considering it." Alfred said.

They both get up and run out of the gate and down the stone ramp.

"What then?" Raivis asked persisteningly. "Extortion? Kidnapping?"

"None of the above, thank you." Alfred said.

"Then what the hell are you doing here?" Raivis exclaimed.

They both skid to a stop at the front line as they see the horde of warriors. The sound of charging horses is deafening and Alfred gives Raivis a big cheesy smile.

"I was just looking for a good time." Alfred said.

Looking back at the warriors headed towards them Raivis suddenly panics and runs off. Alfred instantly stiffens.

"Oh shit. Steady!" he called.

The men around him gather courage from his words but onward comes the horde. The hoofs of the horses pounding in the sand. Several more men take off.

"Steady!" Alfred yelled before he said to himself "What the hell am I saying?"

The warriors let loose battle cries and screams as more soldiers run away.

"Steady!" Alfred yelled before he said to himself "What the hell am I doing?"

The warriors set their rifles and take aim. Alfred steels himself and cocks his own gun. The cartridge in his mouth suddenly snaps and he spits it into the sand.

There is a pause.

"Fire!" Alfred yelled.

The remaining soldiers fire their rifles. The blasts blow dozens of warriors clean off their mounts. The soldiers quickly reload.

"Fire!" Alfred yelled.

As the soldiers fire once more even more warriors fall into the sand. The remaining warriors open fire. Thunder and smoke rip the hot air and a third of the soldiers are killed instantly.

"Fire!" Alfred yelled.

The soldier's remaining standing fire. The warriors spin off their mounts and crash into the sand. And then the entire warriors force plows into the ruins and through the soldiers. Alfred grabbed the barrel of his rifle and started to club the riders off of their steeds, fighting like a man possessed.

Raivis on the other hand is belly crawling across the sand in full retreat as soldiers fall dead all around him as he crawls through the front gate.

Alfred throws his rifle down and goes for his guns. He crosses draws with a gun in each hand and starts blowing riders off their mounts.

Raivis crawls faster and then he spots an open temple doorway amongst the rocks. He gets up and sprints for the door as the last of the soldiers are shot off their feet behind him. Alfred's guns go empty at this moment.

"Son of a bitch." Alfred cursed.

He turns and runs as fast as he was able to right through the front gate. Four warriors on massive Arabians charge after him. Alfred hurdles a stone column and hits the ground running. He spots Raivis inside the temple doorway trying to close the heavy sandstone door.

"Hey Raivis!" Alfred called. "Wait up!"

Raivis pays no attention to Alfred as he pushes harder.

"What are ya doing?" Alfred yelled. "Wait up!"

Alfred runs faster as Raivis pushes harder. The four horsemen lead the big column and charge after him, their horse's hooves pounding.

"Don't you close that door!" Alfred screamed. "Don't you close that door!"

Raivis closes the door just as Alfred reaches it. Alfred slams his body onto the door and it doesn't budge.

"I'm going to get you for this!" Alfred called through the stone.

He turns and bolts off around the rocks running for his life, weaving through the ruins. The Arabians are getting closer and closer, the pounding hoofs getting louder and louder. Alfred finally spins around and faces his attackers. The four massive horses crash to a stop in front of him.

The warriors raise their rifles to finish him off and Alfred just stand there, exhausted and beaten. Then he slowly lifted his right hand and gives them the bird.

The horses suddenly go crazy as all four of them rear up and two of the riders are thrown to the ground. The horses screech and bellow and snort in fear before they buck like fury and run away as if from the devil himself had scared them. The thrown riders get up and race after their mounts.

Alfred just stands there stunned and then he lifts his right hand and checks out his middle finger. Then he feels the air around himself and turns around. The shattered decrepit statue of Anubis stares back at him.

Suddenly the sand begins to shift under Alfred feet. He starts to back away keeping his eyes on the transforming sand. It looks like huge snakes are wiggling and writhing beneath it, forming lines and shapes as they drew a picture. Alfred quickly turns and runs off through the ruins as the sand stops moving and forms a picture of a screaming face.

Up on a ridge a group of riders watch Alfred stumble clear of the decrepit city. Alfred feels their presence and looks up. They are different than the previous warriors with their blue tinted skin and faces covered in strange puzzle tattoos. The Medjai who are still watching Kames grave after all this time.

The Medjai leader is a huge fierce man in black robes with dual scimitars across his waist. His face is both handsome and horrible, blue and tattooed this is Ivan Braginsky. His light eyes watch Alfred stagger off into the open desert.

* * *

Deep in the bowels of a museum in Cairo, Egypt laid the stacks. Rows upon rows of towering bookshelves filled with literature on the Antiquities. Standing at the top of a tall ladder between two of these rows and leaning against one of the bookshelves is a British man whose name is Arthur Kirkland.

Arthur pulls a book out from a stack under his arm, blows dust off of it, and then places it on a shelf with other books whose titles all begin with the letter 'O' and then grabs another book out from under his arm and read the title.

"Tuthmosis?" Arthur said to himself. "Now how did you get up here?"

Carefully so as not to lose his balance she looks over his shoulder to the bookshelf behind him where all the titles behind with the letter 'TO' and then he looks down seeing the long way to the bottom. Arthur gently sets the other books down on the top shelf, then turns, and gingerly starts to reach across the aisle with the Tuthmosis book. It's a little too far so he stretches, reaching, and holding the top of the ladder with his fingertips. He's almost got it, closer now closer.

And that's when the ladder pulls away from the shelf. Arthur yelps, flings the Tutmosis book, and grabs the top of the ladder which stands straight up. Arthur holds his breath swaying precariously before he loses his balance and the ladder swings around and Arthur starts stilt walking down the aisle.

"Ah." Arthur breathed. "Ah."

The ladder crosses the aisle, does and about face, and heads back the way it came. Arthur clings to the top struggling for balance. The ladder teeters out into the main aisle and picks up speed. Arthur screams as it does a 180, spins into another aisle, and finally crashes to a stop at the top of a bookshelf. Arthur holds his breath and then sighs heavily.

And that's when the bookshelf falls away from him and crashes into the next bookshelf. Arthur slides down the ladder and plops to the floor. He looks up just as the domino effect kicks in as each bookshelf crashes into the next and onward it goes. Bookshelf after bookshelf and thousands of volumes fling off the shelves and scattering across the floor. It finally ends as the last shelf crashes into a wall. Arthur's eyes are closed; he opens one eye and looks left and then right and then opens the other eye and stares at the huge mess.

"Oops." Arthur said.

The curator of the museum, Toris, came storming in.

"Look at this!" he exclaimed. "Sons of the Messiah! Give me frogs, flies, locusts! Anything but this! Compared to you, the other plagues were a joy!"

Arthur quickly gets up and starts gathering books.

"I'm sorry, it was an accident." Arthur said.

"When Ramses destroyed Syria, it was an accident." Toris said. "You are a catastrophe! Why do I put up with you?"

Arthur turns to him trying to contain himself.

"You put up with me because I can read and write ancient Egyptian, decipher hieroglyphs and hieratic, and I'm the only person within a thousand miles who knows how to properly code and catalogue this library." Arthur said.

"Who needs smart men?" Toris asked. "I put up with you because your mother and father were our finest patrons, Allah rest their souls." he said bowing his head. "Now straighten up this mess!"

Toris storms out and Arthur just stands there steaming. And then he hears a noise and quickly turns around.

"Hello?" he called, his voice echoing through the room.

Then he hears it again. Like feet slowly shuffling across the floor coming from a nearby gallery.

"Abdul?" Arthur called. "Mohammed? Bob?"

Arthur walks through the stacks and enters a room filled with treasures and plunder from the Middle Kingdom. The room is very dark and quiet; the only light is from flickering torches at either end of the gallery.

When the noise happens again from the far side of the room Arthur grabs a torch and looks around. His eyes stop on a statue of Anubis and another of Horus. He walks down the aisle his hands shaking. He passes by a sarcophagus and realizes that one is open.

Arthur looks around the room nervously trying to figure out who could have opened the tomb before he slowly leans forward with the torch and peers inside.

A hideous rotted mummy sits up suddenly screeching at him. Arthur screams, drops the torch, and back away scared out of his wits before he hears another sound.

A man laughing. From inside the tomb.

Arthur's eyes narrow as a man crawls out from behind the mummy laughing his ass off.

"You!" Arthur exclaims. "You!"

"Drunkard? Fool?" Francis suggests. "Rat bastard? Please call me something original."

"Have you no respect for the dead?" Arthur asks calming himself down.

"Right now, I only wish to join them." Francis said grinning at his brother. Arthur punches him hard in the chest.

"Well I wish you'd do it sooner rather than later, before you ruin my career the way you've ruined yours." Arthur said.

"My deer, sweet, baby brother." Francis said. "I'll have you know that at this moment my career is on a high note."

He falls back and sits on the edge of a tomb.

"High note? Ha!" Arthur laughed. "For five years you've been scrounging around Egypt and what have you to show for it? Nothing."

Francis excitedly starts scrounging around in his jacket.

"Oh yes I do!" Francis exclaimed. "I have something right here!"

"Oh no, not another worthless trinket Francis." Arthur moaned. "If I bring one more piece of junk to the Curator to try and sell for you."

Francis pulls out a small ancient box and holds it in front of Arthur. Arthur is instantly curious and grabs the box out of his hands.

"Where did you get this?" Arthur asked looking around it.

"On a dig down in Thebes." Francis said grinning.

Arthur rolls the box around in his hands mumbling to himself as he translates the hieratics and hieroglyphs covering it.

"My whole life I've never found anything." Francis said leaning towards his brother. "Arthur let me I've found something."

Arthur's fingers play with the various little slats on the box shifting them this way and that way, it's like a puzzle box. Then suddenly it unfolds itself almost mechanically turning itself into a key. Sitting inside the open box is a folded piece of golden papyrus. An ancient map.

"Francis?" Arthur asked.

"Yes?" Francis said hopefully.

Arthur smiled at his brother. "I think you found something."

The curator sits at his desk staring through a jeweler's eyepiece at the key box. Arthur hovers behind him excited.

"See the cartouche there; it's the official royal seat of Seti the First. I'm sure of it." Arthur said pointing at the box.

"perhaps." Toris says almost indifferently.

Francis leaned in from across the desk.

"Two questions." he said. "Who the hell is Seti the First and was he rich?"

"He was the last pharaoh of the old kingdom." Arthur said. "Said to be the wealthiest pharaoh of them all."

"Alright good, that's good." Francis said excitingly. "I like this fellow, I like him very much."

Toris picks up the map and stares at it silently for a few moments.

"I've already dated it; this map is almost four thousand years old." Arthur said excitingly. "And the hieratics over here." He takes a deep breath. "It's Hamunaptra."

Toris freezes suddenly very nervous then he recovers unseen by the siblings.

"My dear boy, don't be ridiculous." Toris scoffed. "We are scholars, not treasure hunters. Hamunaptra is a myth."

"Are we talking about the Hamunaptra?" Francis asked.

"Yes. The City of the Dead." Arthur said smiling. "Where the early pharaohs were said to have hidden the wealth of Egypt."

"Right, right. In a big underground treasure chamber. Everybody knows the story." Francis said. "The entire necropolis was rigged to sink into the sand. On pharaohs command, a flick of the switch! And the whole place could disappear beneath the dunes."

"All we know is that the city mysteriously vanished around 2,134 B.C."

Toris holds the map closer to the burning candle lamp.

"As the Americans would say." he said. "It's all fairy tales and hokum."

He accidently holds the map too close to the candle and it catches on fire. Toris throws it to the floor and Francis drops to his knees and quickly puts the fire out and lifts it up. The left third of the map is burned off.

"You burned it!" Francis exclaimed. "You burned off the part with the lost city!"

"It's for the best I'm sure." Toris said waving away their concerns. "Many men have wasted their lives in the foolish pursuit of Hamunaptra, no one has ever found it and most have never returned."

"You killed my map." Francis said devastated.

"I'm sure it was a fake anyway." Toris said. He then turned to Arthur. "I'm surprised at you Mr. Kirkland, to be so fooled."

Toris reaches for the key box however Arthur quickly snatches it off the desk and gives him a very angry and suspicious look before leaving his office followed by his brother.

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.**

**Questions? Comments? Leave them in a review.**

**Until next time.**

**This is Phoenix-Fire Power over and out.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: ****hey people!**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: ****I own nothing.**

Arthur clutched to Francis as he followed the warden into the Cairo prison. His eyes jumped from prisoner to prisoner.

"You told me you found it on a dig down in Thebes!" Arthur whispered to his brother.

"I was mistaken." Francis said looking around with some interest.

"You lied to me!" Arthur hissed.

"I lie to everybody, what makes you so special?" Francis asked.

"I'm your brother." Arthur said.

"That just makes you more gullible." Francis said.

"You stole it from a drunk at the local Casbah?" Arthur hissed.

"Picked his pocket actually." Francis said determinedly not looking at Arthur.

The warden ushers Arthur and Francis into the holding pen.

"And what is he in prison for?" Arthur asked the warden.

"I did not know, so when I heard you were coming, I asked him that myself." The warden said.

"And what did he say?" Arthur asked once more.

"He said…" the warden said shrugging. "He was just looking for a good time."

The interior cell door bursts open. A man in chains is dragged by four guards and they shove him up to the cell bars. His face is half hidden by long hair, a scraggly beard, and many new bruises and is covered in dirt. Arthur looks at him in disgust.

"But he's just a filthy criminal." he said.

"Way to go Arthur." Francis whispered.

The man glances at Arthur before he looks at Francis.

"So who's the stiff?" he asks.

"Stiff?!" Arthur sputtered.

"My brother actually." Francis said, almost containing a note of regret in his voice.

"Yeah? Well…I'm sure he's not a total loss." the man said.

The warden headed out the door. "I'll be back in a moment." he said as he left.

"I tremble with anticipation." the man said sarcastically.

A guard clubs the man across the head. The man's face bounces off the metal bars however he showed no pain, all he did was look back and give the guard a nasty look. Arthur stepped closer.

"We…uh…found your puzzle box, and we've come to ask you about it." Arthur said.

"No." the man said.

"No?" Arthur repeated.

"No." the man said. "You came to ask me about Hamunaptra."

Arthur and Francis quickly looked around, hoping the guards didn't hear him. They stepped closer.

"How do you know the box pertains to Hamunaptra?" Arthur asked coyly.

"Because that's where I found it. I was there." the man said.

Arthur felt the breath leave his body while Francis' eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"How do we know that's not a load of pig swallow?" Francis asked.

The man looked closer at Francis and obtained a glint of recognition in his eyes.

"Hey…don't I know you?" the man asked.

"Um, well, you see…" Francis stuttered.

The man's fist came flying through the bars and hits Francis square in the jaws, decking him, as he hits the floor out cold. The guards clubs that man once more and his head bounces off the bars again. He shows no pain but gives the guard another nasty look. Arthur spared his brother a glance before looking back at the man.

"You were actually at Hamunaptra?" Arthur asked.

"I just decked your brother." The man said pointing down at his unconscious brother.

"Yes, well." Arthur said shrugging. "I know my brother, he deserves that."

The man almost smiles. "Yeah I was there."

"You swear?" Arthur asked.

"Every damn day."

"No, I mean-" Arthur started to say.

"I know what you mean." the man interrupted. "I was there alright. Seti's place. The city of the dead."

"What did you find?" Arthur asked. "What did you see?"

"I found sand. I saw death." The man said.

The warden entered once more. Arthur quickly leaned closer to the man.

"Could you tell me how to get there? The exact location?" he asked.

"Want to know?" the man asked in return.

Arthur leaned closer.

"Yes." he said.

"Really want to know?" the man asked teasingly.

Arthur leaned his face right up to the bars, nervous and excited.

"Yes." he said.

The man stepped forward and grabbing Arthurs face kissed him full on the lips.

"Then get me the hell outta here." he said when he pulled away.

Arthur stood there frozen and stunned. The same guards clubs the man once more, his head bounces off the bars again. Before he could react however the guards grab him, yank him away from the bars, and drag him out of the room.

"Where are they taking him?" Arthur demanded.

"To be hanged." The warden said.

When Arthur looked at the warden in shock the warden grins.

"Apparently he had a very good time."

In the gallows courtyard hundreds of filthy prisoners stare down onto the gallows as the hangman's noose is draped over the man's head and cinched tight around his neck. Arthur follows the warden onto a balcony above the gallows.

The man looks up at Arthur sits down beside the warden.

"I will give you one hundred pounds to spare his life." Arthur said.

"I would pay one hundred pounds just to see him hang." The warden said in reply.

"Two hundred pounds." Arthur said.

"Proceed." The warden calls to the hangman.

"Three hundred pounds!" Arthur said desperately.

The man could hear every word and he looks hopeful. The hangman turns to him and asked "Any last requests pig?"

"Yeah, I'd like ya to let me go." The man grunted.

The hangman grabs the lever to the trapdoor.

"Five hundred pounds!" Arthur calls desperately.

The warden sets his greasy hand on Arthur's leg and grins. "And what else?"

Revolted Arthur quickly shoves the warden's hand away.

Insulted the warden angrily turns and gestures to the hangman who pulls the lever. The trapdoor drops away.

"No!" Arthur yelled.

The man drops through the hold however the rope pays-out. Then jerks taught. The man's body snaps at the end of the rope gasping for breath.

"His neck did not break! Good!" the warden said. "Now we get to watch him strangle to death."

The prisoners go insane, screaming and shouting in anger. The guards look around nervous as the man struggles at the end of the rope gagging. Arthur is horrified and he quickly turns to the warden and leans forward.

"He knows the location to Hamunaptra." he whispered.

The warden spins around and faces him.

"You lie." he said.

"I would never!" Arthur said appalled.

"Are you saying this filthy godless son of a pig knows where to find the city of the dead? Truly?" the warden said gesturing to the choking man.

"Yes and if you cut him down, we will give you ten percent." Arthur said.

"Fifty percent." The warden insisted.

"Twenty." Arthur shot.

"Forty."

Arthur hesitated and bites his lip.

"Twenty-five percent and not one single more." Arthur said.

The warden flashes a big rotten smile and then yells in Arabic. A scimitar slashes the air and the rope is cut. The man crashes to the ground half dead and rolls over gagging. He looks up at Arthur who smiles broadly and waves at him.

* * *

Arthur and Francis walked together at Giza port. Teams of explorers swarm the docks and across the Nile the pyramids spike the sky. Arthur and Francis walk along the boardwalk besieged by Hawkers selling everything from toy tombs to King Tut action figures.

"Do you really think he'll show up?" Arthur asked.

"Undoubtedly, I know the breed." Francis said in confidence. "He may be a cowboy, but his word is his word."

"Personally, I think he's filthy, rude, and a complete scoundrel." Arthur sniffed. "I don't like him one bit."

"Anyone I know?" a familiar voice asked.

The brother turn and the man walks up; shaved, showered, spit clean and polished with a new haircut and clothes. Francis licked his lips while Arthurs jaw dropped slightly.

"Oh…um…hello." Arthur managed.

Francis grabbed the man's arm and shook his head.

"Smashing day for the start of an adventure, eh?" Francis asked. "We never really caught your name."

"Alfred F. Jones." Alfred asked quickly checking his pockets. "And yeah, sure, smashing."

Arthur recovered slightly and he clears his throat. "Mister Jones. Can you look me in the eye and guarantee me this is not some sort of flimflam? Because if it is, I'm warning you-"

"All I can tell you, sir, is that my colonel found that map in an ancient fortress and the whole damn garrison believed in it so much, that without orders, we marched halfway across Libya and into Egypt to find that city." Alfred said. "Like I told ya, all I saw was sand. Everybody else was wiped out by Tuareg warriors. I'll take your bags."

Alfred took his bags and headed up the gang-plan and into the ship. Arthur's eyes followed him a bit wistfully as Francis grinned.

"Yes, yes your right, filthy, rude, a complete scoundrel. Nothing to like there at all." Francis said.

Arthur shot his brother a look however Francis just grinned. The warden from before suddenly brushed past them tipping his raggedy hat.

"A bright morning to all." he said grinning.

"What are you doing here?" Arthur asked.

"I have come to protect my investment, thank you very much." The warden said.

As he went up the plank Arthur and Francis shared a look.

* * *

In the middle of the night while the ship is sailing across the waters a small boat hits its side gently. Three men carefully climb up the ship and jump across the rail.

Francis and the three hunters on the ship play poker as Alfred comes out of a door carrying a gunny-sack.

"Sit down, Jones, sit down." Francis said. "We could use another good player."

"I only gamble with my life, never my money." Alfred said.

"Never? What if I was to wager five hundred dollars says we get to Hamunaptra before you?" the first hunter, Matthew, asked.

Alfred returned Matthews cocky look.

"Yer on." Alfred said shaking the others hand.

"What makes you so confident, sir?" the other man, Sadik, asked.

"What makes you?" Alfred asked in return?

"We got us a man who's actually been there." the third man, Yao, said.

Alfred felt a tick in his jaw as Francis started to say "what a coincidence, why-"

Alfred pressed his elbow into Francis' ribs effectively shutting him up.

"Whose deal is it? Is it my deal? I thought I just dealt?" Francis said recovering from his mistake.

* * *

Arthur sat on a table staring out over the passing river. The gunny-sack drops onto the table startling him.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya." Alfred said.

"The only thing that scares me, Mister Jones, are your manners." Arthur said.

"Still angry that I kissed ya, huh?" Alfred asked opening the bag.

"If you call that a kiss." Arthur said stiffly.

Alfred reached into the gunny-sack and started to pull out revolvers, pistols, hunting knives, a massive elephant gun, and a half dozen carefully wrapped sticks of dynamite.

"Did I miss something?" Arthur asked, smiling lightly. "Are we going into battle?"

"The last time I was at that place everybody I was with died." Alfred said.

That takes the smile off of Arthurs face. Alfred starts to dismantle and clean the guns.

"There's something out there, you know, something under the sand." Alfred said.

"Yes, I'm hoping to find a certain artifact, a book actually, my brother thinks there's treasure." Arthur said. "What do you think is out there?"

Alfred looked Arthur in the eyes.

"Evil. The Tuaregs and the Bedouin believe that Hamunaptra is cursed." he said. "They call it, 'the doorway to hell.'"

"I don't believe in fairy talks and hokum, Mister Jones, but I do believe that one of the most famous books in history is buried out there. The book of the living." Arthur said. "It's what first interested me in Egypt as a child. It's why I came here, sort of a life's pursuit."

"And the fact that they say it's made out of pure gold, makes no difference to you, right?" Alfred asked grinning slightly.

Arthur started in surprise. "You know your history."

"I know my treasure." Alfred corrected.

Arthur starts to get up to go and then he hesitates. Slight nervous he turned back to Alfred and as matter of factly as possible asked "By the way…why did you kiss me?"

Alfred still cleaning his guns shrugged and said "I was about to be hanged, seemed like a good idea at the time."

Arthur's eyes widen and furious he turned and stormed off. Alfred looks up and watched him leave a bit perplexed.

"What did I say?" he asked the air.

He hears someone snickering under the table. He quickly reached down and grabs a body and lifts him into the air. It's Raivis.

"My very good friend!" Raivis exclaimed. "What a surprise."

"Why if it ain't my little buddy, Raivis." Alfred said. "I'm going to kill you now."

"You never were any good with the ladies or the men Jones." Raivis said swallowing hard.

"So you're the one leading the others." Alfred said. "I shoulda figured. So what's the scam? You get 'em out in the middle of the desert and then leave 'em to rot?"

"Unfortunately no, these hunters are smart, they pay me only half now, and half when I get them back to Cairo, so I much go all the way." Raivis said sadly.

Alfred slowly placed Raivis back on the ground and let's go off him.

"You never believed in Hamunaptra, Jones." Raivis said. "Why are you going back? The devil himself lives out there."

They look as they hear Arthur yelp. A single camel in the horse paddock takes another attempt to bit at him. He yelps again and backs away. Alfred grins as Arthur flees down the deck.

"The guy saved my life, figured it was the least I could do, keep him out of trouble." Alfred said still looking in the direction Arthur had fled to.

"You always did have more balls than brains." Raivis said.

Alfred narrows his eyes as he looked back at Raivis.

"Let's make us even, shall we?" Alfred asked.

"Even?" Raivis asked in slight fear.

Alfred grabbed him and chucked him over the side of the barge. Raivis splashes into the river as Alfred takes his gunny-sack and starts walking off down the deck.

"Jones!" Raivis screamed back up. "I am going to kill you for this!"

"Sounds familiar." Alfred sighed himself.

He stopped suddenly when he noticed three sets of wet footprints coming up over the railing from the river and heading down the deck.

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.**

**Questions? Comments? Leave them in a review.**

**Until next time.**

**This is Phoenix-Fire Power over and out.**


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